美国国家公共电台 NPR--It's been 5 decades since the first female rabbi was ordained in the U.S.

It's been 5 decades since the first female rabbi was ordained¹ in the U.S.

Transcript²

Next month it will be 50 years since Sally Priesand was ordained as the nation's first female rabbi. Today, about 1,000 women rabbis have changed the course of American Judaism.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

For many American Jews, seeing a female rabbi is a part of life. So it's remarkable³ that the first American woman was ordained as a rabbi just 50 years ago. Deena Prichep reports on how this groundbreaking ordination⁴ changed the role of women and the course of Judaism in America.

DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE⁵: Even when she was enrolled⁶ in seminary at Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, Sally Priesand knew that a lot of people did not want to see her ordained.

SALLY PRIESAND: There would always come a time where some person would come up to me and tell me why women shouldn't be rabbis. And I would say, thank you for sharing your opinion. And I would walk away.

PRICHEP: Priesand sees herself as a relatively⁷ private person, but she became hugely public when she was ordained in 1972. It was the work she felt called to do.

PRIESAND: I became a rabbi because I wanted to be a rabbi. And I discovered that when you're the first of something, there are extra responsibilities that come along with that.

PRICHEP: While Priesand was the first American woman to become a rabbi, she was not the first to try. Pamela Nadell directs the Jewish Studies Program at American University and has written about the fight for women's ordination.

PAMELA NADELL: There is nothing in Jewish law that prohibits women from becoming a rabbi, so their argument is it's only custom.

PRICHEP: And customs change.

NADELL: They're saying Judaism has made other accommodations to the modern world. Why not make this accommodation as well?

PRICHEP: Nadell says campaigns for female clergy⁸ have gone hand-in-hand with political and social changes - in the 1920s, on the heels of suffrage⁹; in 1930s Germany, when Regina Jonas was privately¹⁰ ordained - she died in the Holocaust¹¹, and her story was lost for years; and 50 years ago, at the height of second-wave feminism.

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UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting) Join us now. Sisterhood is powerful. Join us now.

JUDITH PLASKOW: It was impossible, in a sense, to be questioning everything about women's roles in society and not also be looking at one's religious tradition.

PRICHEP: Judith Plaskow is professor emerita of Religious Studies at Manhattan College and a Jewish feminist¹² theologian. She says this was the time of consciousness-raising groups, of national marches, of women demanding entry into all parts of life.

PLASKOW: It was totally amazing. I mean, it felt like everything was breaking open.

PRICHEP: In the space of just a few years, centuries of tradition transformed across religions, and those that didn't started to seem out-of-step. And historian Pamela Nadell says these women changed Jewish life.

NADELL: They invented a host of ceremonies and rituals to mark the events of women's lives that the male rabbis had never considered essential - the first baby girl naming ceremonies, ceremonies to mark events like miscarriage¹³.

PRICHEP: In 1972, Sally Priesand was not looking to transform Jewish life. She had a hard enough time just getting hired to do the job she loved. But she started something.

PRIESAND: I did open doors, but I also held the doors open for those who came after me.

PRICHEP: When you open a door, you never quite know who will walk through and what new world they'll bring. People are still walking through, pushing for equal pay and opportunities, widening understanding of Torah and setting the path for generations to come.

For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.

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1 ordained   

v.任命（某人）为牧师( ordain的过去式和过去分词 )；授予（某人）圣职；（上帝、法律等）命令；判定

参考例句：

• He was ordained in 1984. 他在一九八四年被任命为牧师。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was ordained priest. 他被任命为牧师。 来自辞典例句

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 ordination   

n.授任圣职

参考例句：

• His ordination gives him the right to conduct a marriage or a funeral.他的晋升圣职使他有权主持婚礼或葬礼。
• The vatican said the ordination places the city's catholics in a "very delicate and difficult decision."教廷说，这个任命使得这个城市的天主教徒不得不做出“非常棘手和困难的决定”。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 clergy   

n.[总称]牧师，神职人员

参考例句：

• I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would follow this example.我衷心希望，我国有更多的牧师效法这个榜样。
• All the local clergy attended the ceremony.当地所有的牧师出席了仪式。

9 suffrage   

n.投票，选举权，参政权

参考例句：

• The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance.妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
• The voters gave their suffrage to him.投票人都投票选他。

10 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

11 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

12 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

13 miscarriage   

n.失败，未达到预期的结果；流产

参考例句：

• The miscarriage of our plans was a great blow.计划的失败给我们以巨大的打击。
• Women who smoke are more to have a miscarriage.女性吸烟者更容易流产。